The Media Business: Advertising

First TV Spots For Microsoft

The New York Times

January 27, 1992

The Microsoft Corporation will become a television advertiser for the first time, spending $8 million to run commercials from mid-March through May for its Windows computer software.

"I call it 'printcast,' " said Gary Gigot, Microsoft's vice president of marketing, "taking the principles that have been successful in selling our product in print and using them in the television medium." The seven commercials, like Microsoft's print advertisements, are being created by Ogilvy & Mather Los Angeles.

The spots are expected to be shot in demonstration style, Mr. Gigot said, with the actor Sam Waterston serving as a narrator. They will be aimed at a general business computer user, "who doesn't read the PC press," he added, referring to the personal computer magazines in which Microsoft advertises extensively.

Copyright 1992 The New York Times Company